Halo 4 Grind Guides: Big Team Infinity Slayer

This War Games commendation guide looks at Infinity Slayer’s beefier brother, Big Team, and how it differs from standard Slayer in what you can accomplish.

What is it?
Big Team Infinity Slayer is pretty self-explanatory, really; it’s just like Slayer, with bigger teams. With eight players to a side rather than four, the maps get bigger, the more places you have to hide (or hide from), and the more you’re going to depend on vehicles. Ghosts, Warthogs, and Mongeese are a part of pretty much every map in the Big Team playlist, with a Scorpion on Exile, a Wraith on Vortex, Mantises on Meltdown and Ragnarok, and Banshees on Ragnarok and Exile.

What commendations can I work on?
Aside from your standard kill count, loadout weapon, and other commendations you can get in Infinity Slayer, Big Team is all about vehicle-related shenanigans and ordnance kills. In the case of vehicles, you can easily rack up some Wheelman medals once you learn the maps and become a solid ‘hog (or even Mongoose) driver, or you can choose to work your Mounted Turret kills by hopping in the back. Also nice for turret killing is the fact that all of the big team maps have turrets scattered around for your leisure, the most advantageously placed ones being on Exile and Vortex. Just remember that for a turret kill to count as a turret kill, the turret must still be mounted; i.e. not popped off to carry around, or still in the back of a vehicle.

If you’re going for vehicle destruction, Big Team is currently the best place to rack up kills on UNSC vehicles (Mongeese, Warthogs, Scorpions, and Mantises); Ghosts, Banshees, and the occasional Wraith are around as well, but if you’re looking to grind, it’s easier to just hammer away at those in Spartan Ops. My main piece of advice, should you want to pop vehicles, is to pack plasma. A charged Plasma Pistol shot will disable a vehicle (but not its turret, such as with a Warthog, so be careful) temporarily, giving you a chance to take it out, and having Plasma Grenades on hand to stick someone’s ride makes doing so that much easier. Most any vehicle can be destroyed with two stickies, save for the Wraith and Scorpion, which you’ll need to get close to in order to board and plant a grenade inside them. If you’ve unlocked loadouts beyond your first one, it helps to have one built for Big Team ready to go.

Splatters are another commendation that Big Team makes incredibly easy, and the go-to tool to rack them up is the Ghost. They’re on every Big Team map, as I said, and their boost function makes it that much easier to plow through enemy Spartans. However, many players have already grown accustomed to jumping out of the way when a Ghost is plowing through, so either try to learn routes that will take people by surprise, or make a habit of switching up your speed, slowing down to make people jump when they think you’re going to run them down, only to slam on the boost as soon as they’re coming in to land. Vortex and Meltdown both come highly suggested as Splatter-friendly maps, as they have travel lanes that are narrow enough that pedestrians don’t have that many places to run, and those lanes still see a fair amount of foot traffic.

I also mentioned ordnance, and that’s because this playlist is where the meaty weapons come out to play. The Sniper Rifle, Spartan Laser, Incineration Cannon, Railgun, and Rocket Launcher are all often found in the initial ordnance drops at the start of the round, and all those and more, like the Beam Rifle and Binary Rifle, tend to show up more often as options once you rack up enough points to get your own drops. The 1000-point goal and greater number of enemies to take out lends itself to more ordnance drops due to higher point earnings as well, so you can end up sampling a wide variety of goodies in a single match. All of those first five items are worth getting some experience with for vehicular destruction’s sake, as well as the Sticky Detonator, though the latter is still a bit better in more confined spaces.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that any victories or top-three score placements in Big Team Infinity Slayer will go towards their corresponding commendation counts under the Slayer category in Game Type commendations.

Any other tips?
As with regular Slayer, communication and teamwork help a lot. Tell your cohorts where the enemy is, if you see them. Warn them of snipers, and try to include where you think they’re sniping from. The landmarks on the Big Team maps are a bit more distinct than on smaller areas, so it’s a bit easier to make it clear what you’re talking about.

If you’re playing a map with a Mantis, keep in mind that the Mantis does so much better if it has some buddies on foot. Sure, it’s pretty badass, but to keep it balanced in gameplay, the Mantis’ shields don’t take that long to knock down, take a while to recharge, and it’s pretty vulnerable if the enemy manages to get in close to it. Sure, it’s got a great stomp move (used by hitting the melee button) that’ll take out anything underfoot, but it’s slow to hit, leaving enemies a fair amount of time to scramble up the back of the Mantis and insert a grenade. Having even just a couple of foot soldiers assisting and keeping the way clear so the Mantis can wreak havoc will make your mech-riding experiences that much more enjoyable.

It’s possible to splatter with a Mongoose, but getting up the momentum needed to do so isn’t as easy as it is with a Ghost. They’re more meant for mobility’s sake, be it for rushing to a power weapon or charging the enemy’s base to jack some of their vehicles. The annoying horn is pretty fun to bother the enemy with, though.

If you see a beam of light floating around in your general direction, find cover. The Spartan Laser emits a red targeting beam while it charges up, and the Binary Rifle emits two orange beams when zoomed in. Both of these will ruin your day in one hit.

Well, that’s about all the advice I have regarding Big Team Slayer. May you not get stuck in six matches on a row on Longbow.

An avid gamer and writer since his childhood, Chris is constantly trying to find new ways to merge his loves of words and pixels. When not strapped to a keyboard, he can be found streaming on Twitch.tv, appreciating fine beers, or having surprisingly involved conversations with his cat.